Posts by Liliana Segura

Liliana Segura is a staff writer and editor of AlterNet's Rights and Liberties and War on Iraq Special Coverage.

Cheney on FOX: President 'Doesn't Have to Check with Anybody' to Launch Nukes
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on December 22, 2008 at 6:38 AM.

So, outgoing VP Dick Cheney has decided to come out of the shadows to give a couple interviews and, thanks to Chris Wallace at "FOX News Sunday," now we know:

a) He still considers himself a "Rumself man."

b) The U.S. would have invaded Iraq even without the false claims of WMD.

c) Patrick Leahy had it coming.

More significant (if unsurprising), is his open defense of torture and the NSA spying program -- "all steps we took, that I believe the president was fully authorized in taking, provided invaluable intelligence which has been the key to our ability to defeat Al Qaida" -- but perhaps the most downright frightening quote is this one, in which he elaborates on the president's powers as commander in chief:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Photo Shows Top Obama Staffer Groping Hillary Clinton Cut-Out
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on December 5, 2008 at 11:43 AM.

If you haven't heard of Jon Favreau, Obama’s wunderkind speechwriter, brace yourself.

In a January profile in the New York Times, the then-26-year-old Favreau was found “sipping Diet Coke and munching on carrot sticks and crackers,” while reflecting on his sources of inspiration for the famously soaring speeches he writes for the president-elect.

"I actually read a lot of Bobby" (Kennedy), said Favreau.

"I see shades of J.F.K., R.F.K.," he said, and then added, "King."

According to the Times, "Mr. Favreau said that when he is writing, he stays up until 3 a.m. and gets up as early as 5. He hasn't slept for more than six hours in as long as he can remember, he said."

So maybe he can plead sleep deprivation to explain a series of scandalous photos, one of which shows Favreau groping the breast of a Hillary Clinton cut-out.

As the Washington Post reports:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Watch Phil Donohue's Documentary "Body of War" Tonight, 7PM EST
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on November 11, 2008 at 10:10 AM.

Earlier this year, I interviewed Tomas Young, an Iraq war veteran and the subject of the searing documentary Body of War. Tomas was shot in Sadr City during the the first week of his deployment in 2004, and the results were catastrophic: He came home in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the chest down. Although the film depicts a man of stunning mobility and awe-inspiring strength -- much of which has gone toward speaking out against the war in Iraq -- more than four years later, he continues to grapple with numerous related health problems. Tomas has spent much of the time since the release of Body of War this spring in the hospital.

Tomas Young, like so many other soldiers returning with broken bodies, provides a sobering reminder of the cost of war at a time when the physical and mental health crisis faced by veterans has reached alarming rates. If you missed Body of War when it first came out, you can watch it tonight on the Sundance Channel. It is a powerful film, one intended by co-director Phil Donohue to blow the lid off what he often calls "the most sanitized war of my lifetime."

For more information on Body of War, go here.

Facing Execution for the Third Time, Troy Davis Granted a Stay
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on October 24, 2008 at 11:28 AM.

After a last-minute challenge by his attorneys, Georgia death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis was granted a stay of execution today by a federal court. Davis was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Monday.

As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The ruling is only the latest in what has been a roller-coaster ride of appeals for Davis. It marks the third time in 16 months he has won a stay shortly before his scheduled execution.

...

..."This is the first step toward a court hearing to consider the new evidence, something we have been asking for for almost a decade now," attorney Jason Ewart said.

Russ Willard with the state Attorney General's Office said the office had told the Department of Corrections that the execution was off for Monday. In the meantime, he said, state attorneys are reviewing the court's order and exploring the their options.

Earlier this week, Davis asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to pursue another round of litigation in federal court on claims he is innocent. The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 requires such a request to be made to an appeals court before another federal habeas corpus lawsuit can be filed.

On Friday, 11th Circuit said the stay of execution is conditional. Davis must make a showing he can meet the "stringent requirements" to pursue another round of appeals, the decision said.

Troy Davis has been on death row since 1991, for the murder of a police officer in Savannah, Georgia. No physical evidence linked him to the crime, and seven out of nine eyewitnesses have since recanted their testimony. Among his supporters are former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Georgia Congressman John Lewis, and exonerated death row prisoners across the country. Davis came within two hours of execution last month.

Yesterday, October 23rd, was a Global Day of Action for Troy Davis. Rallies and protests took place in 12 states and four other countries. Troy's sister, Martina Correia said on Friday: "To all the people around the world working hard and fighting for him, he wants to say thank you and this fight has to continue."

For more information on Troy Davis, go here.

Supreme Court Rejects Troy Davis Case, Gives Green Light for His Execution
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on October 14, 2008 at 8:50 AM.

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the case of Georgia death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis, giving the go-ahead for his execution. The Court's decision came mere weeks after it blocked Davis's execution at the last minute so that the justices could examine his appeal, something they were scheduled to do six days later anyway. Davis was less than two hours away from the death chamber on September 23, when the Court intervened; it was the second time Davis had come within hours of death; last summer, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole granted a temporary reprieve based on overwhelming evidence of his possible innocence. Among other factors, seven out of nine eyewitnesses who testified against Davis at trial have since recanted, with some saying they were coerced by the police. Of the two who have not recanted, one, a man named Sylvester Coles is said by many to be the real murderer.

Troy Davis has been on death row since 1991, having been convicted of the 1989 killing of a white police officer in Savannah, Georgia. Read more about the case here.

The Supreme Court's decision this morning -- in which the judges refused to consider whether executing a potentially innocent person violates the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment -- could mean that Davis will be executed as soon as two weeks from now. He is out of legal avenues, and the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency. There is no execution date scheduled yet; the Georgia DA must seek a new death warrant first. Go here for information on what you can do to pressure the state of Georgia NOT to go through with this execution.

Davis has won the support of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, including President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the Pope. Georgia Congressman and Civil Rights icon John Lewis has firmly stated his belief in Davis's innocence; as he told Amy Goodman on the morning of the September execution date, "race is everything in this case."

This is a very sad and grave day in the state of Georgia, in our nation and in the world. A man that could really be innocent -- and all of the evidence tends to dramatize and quantify that this man may go to his death later today as an innocent human being. And when you commit that final decision and later discover that he is truly, truly innocent of the crime that he's been accused of committing, there is not any way to bring him back. I just think it's wrong and it's unfair, and it will be the greatest miscarriage of justice.

Davis's sister, Martina Correia, who has been fighting for her brother for the past ten years, decried the decision. "Oh, God. I think it's disgusting, terrible. I'm extremely disappointed," she said. "Well, we still have to fight. We can't stop."

Incredible: Hours Before His Execution, Troy Davis Wins a Temporary Reprieve
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on September 23, 2008 at 4:34 PM.

For the second time in two years, Troy Anthony Davis came within hours of the execution chamber before winning a last-minute stay. Davis had already said his goodbyes to his family members (who had also been told they'd be barred from witnessing his execution) and been offered a last meal (which he refused) when word came, this time from the U.S. Supreme Court that he would live to see another day. "We are grateful that the U.S. Supreme Court has shown the foresight to stay the execution," said Larry Cox of Amnesty International, which has been fighting alongside Martina, his sister, as well as other family, friends and activist groups to save Davis's life. "We hope that it takes up the case and looks at it with fresh eyes, marking the first time that evidence pointing to Davis' innocence will have been heard in a court of law."

Among the cruel injustices in the case up until this point was the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court was actually scheduled to consider Davis's appeal on Monday, the 29th. Yet the state of Georgia still saw it fit to go through with the execution today. "For reasons that are unfathomable, Chatham County officials seemed doggedly determined to ram this execution through before justice could fully run its course," said Cox. The stay will be in effect while the court considers the appeal.

The Associated Press reports:

Davis wants the high court to order a judge to hear from the witnesses who recanted their testimony and others who say another man confessed to the crime.

Influential advocates, including former President Jimmy Carter and South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu, insist that there's enough doubt about his guilt to merit a new trial.

A divided Georgia Supreme Court has twice rejected his request for a new trial, and had rejected his appeal to delay the execution Monday afternoon. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles also turned down his bid for clemency.

Troy Davis still faces a major obstacle if he hopes to live. As ABC News reports, "The court usually declines to hear such cases. If the court does not agree to hear the appeal, Davis will still be executed."

To read an interview with Troy Davis's sister, Martina, as well as Georgia Representative John Lewis, go here.

To learn more about what you can do, go here.

Political Prisoner Sami Al-Arian Released
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on September 2, 2008 at 2:35 PM.

Breaking, from ABC News.

Former professor Sami Al-Arian, who was once charged by the U.S. government with being a top Palestinian terrorist, has been released from custody for the first time in more than five years.

Immigration authorities released Al-Arian to the custody of his daughter, just hours before a federal judge had ordered the agency to explain Al-Arian's continued detention.

Al-Arian, who once taught computer science at the University of South Florida, has been in the custody of either federal marshals or immigration authorities since February 2003, when federal prosecutors charged him with being a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

His trial on those charges resulted in an acquittal on some counts and a hung jury on others. He eventually struck a plea bargain admitting to lesser charges.

He currently faces contempt of court charges in federal court in Virginia for failing to testify to a grand jury. Prosecutors strongly opposed his release while he awaits trial.

Read more about the government's persecution against Al-Arian here.

Confirmed: McCain's VP Pick is Sarah Palin
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on August 29, 2008 at 7:45 AM.

The networks just confirmed McCain's vice presidential pick, "staunch conservative" Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

So much for the chance that he would choose a pro-choice running mate. Palin is part of a group that calls themselves "Feminists for Life."

The Republicans have never nominated a woman for their ticket. Elected in 2006, at 44 years old, she is also the youngest governor in Alaska history.

Joe Scarborough says the "conservative base will be thrilled."

Pat Buchanan calls it "the biggest political gamble in American political history." "That is not hyperbole."

As details of her biography trickle in, here's one: in 1984, Palin was runner up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant.

Learn more here and, of course, here.

Obama: Tell IVAW "Yes We Can"
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on August 26, 2008 at 2:00 PM.

Watching Nancy Pelosi as she began her address to the attendees at the Democratic National Convention last night, it was hard not to feel a twitch of sympathy. It must be hard to be the one charged with getting up and listing, as she did, the achievements of this Democratic controlled Congress, even before an audience as pumped up as the crowd at Denver's Pepsi Center. Nearly two years after a midterm election that saw them trounce Republicans on a wave of antiwar sentiment, the war in Iraq drags on, costing thousands upon thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, on the homefront, the Democrats recently helped pass the FISA Amendments Act, which, in addition to codifying Bush's illegal wiretapping scheme, insulated telecoms from accountability from spying on Americans (a fact that was must be hard to glass over in Denver, given AT&T's corporate logo on convention goody bags.) Pelosi herself has been dogged by protesters in the past several months, thanks to revelations late last year that she, along with a small group of legislators, was secretly briefed on the administration's torture tactics, way back in 2002. As the Washington Post reported:

"For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk. Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised."

But back to Denver: Pelosi's speech was laden with patriotic paeans to the troops. "Every chance we get, we must honor our veterans and our men and women in uniform for their courage, patriotism, and the sacrifice they and their families are willing to make," she said. "Because of them, America is the land of the free and the home of the brave." Whatever that last line has to do with our current military misadventures is unclear, but Americans, brave or not, are fairly fed up with meaningless pledges to the troops that are made while Congress continues writing checks for the war. In a recent appearance on "Meet the Press," Pelosi was shown Congress's recent approval ratings. According to the latest Gallup poll, 14 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing -- and 75 percent do not. "That's the lowest number that Gallup has ever reported," Tom Brokaw pointed out.

Today all questions regarding Congressional haplessness and enabling are met with one response: Barack Obama. Whether in the name of unity or an unwillingness to own responsibility for failing to fulfill its mandate, more than any other accomplishment, Democratic legislators appear content to celebrate their bestowing of Obama on the country as our best hope for change. That includes ending the war.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Yep, It's Biden
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on August 23, 2008 at 5:17 AM.

The text message arrived at 3am, officially confirming what had been leaked hours before:

"Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!"

Read more here or here.

General consensus is that Biden was chosen to "fill the gaps" in Obama's resume, given his 36 years in the Senate and the fact that he chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But when it comes to Obama's base, Biden isn't exactly the "change" agent people might want. (And of course, there was that whole "clean," "articulate" thing.)

The McCain campaign immediately released as statement claiming that "there has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama's lack of experience than Joe Biden" and CNN and MSNBC, relieved to have something to show on the air besides speculating pundits and the people camping out in front of various would-be VPs houses, has started playing some clips to that effect.

Of course, it's too soon to know how this will be spun -- let alone what Obama's supporters and detractors do with this news. For now, here's what you find when you Google "biden wiki." (Yes, it has already been updated.)

Michael Moore Dares to Ask: What's So Heroic About Being Shot Down While Bombing Innocent Civilians?
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on August 21, 2008 at 11:35 AM.

This post originally appeared in PEEK's blog.

Confession: I have not yet read all six (short, illustrated, large type) chapters of Mike's Election Guide 2008, Michael Moore's, latest work of jaunty political opinion. Am I supposed to discuss it with him on "Meet the Bloggers" tomorrow? Yes. But I'm not worried. It's a breezy read, has already made me laugh out loud, and besides, I may have already found the best part in Chapter One.

The title is "Ask Mike!" and, in it, ordinary voters, old and young, pose questions about politics and current events. Some are more serious than others ("If Iran has weapons of mass destruction, we should invade, right?"), which does not make Moore's answers any more subtle. ("Excuuuuuse me? Did you say the words, 'weapons of mass destruction?' Take it back. I SAID TAKE IT BACK!") Of course, the "questions" are really satirical jabs at the media -- "When a Republican wears a little American flag lapel pin, what is he trying to say?" "If Obama can't bowl, can he govern?" -- but there's one in particular that is worth paying attention to -- especially if you happen to be a member of the press and have been utterly unwilling to take McCain's supporters and opponents alike to task for perpetuating a narrative that would be central to a McCain victory, and which has already become a dominant theme in this election: The McCain as War Hero canard.

The "question" is posted thusly:

"Why did the Vietnamese shoot down John McCain and put him in prison for five years? He seems like such a nice guy."

ANSWER: I'm guessing, in spite of his anger management issues, he is a nice guy. He has devoted his life to this country. He was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our nation. And for that, he was tortured and then imprisoned in a North Vietnamese POW camp for nearly five-and-a-half years.

That's the set-up. It gets better. Moore proceeds, not to question, as Wesley Clark recently did to so many shrieks of criticism, whether McCain's capture really makes him qualified to be president of the United States -- the answer, any thinking person realizes, is "no" -- but whether the Vietnam war was a conflict that can really be said to have produced the breed of "American hero" McCain is so often celebrated as.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Act Now: Tell Texas Not to Execute an Innocent Man
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on August 18, 2008 at 1:00 PM.

This first appeared in AlterNet's PEEK blog.

At this time last summer, the life of a Texas prisoner named Kenneth Foster was saved by a grassroots movement to stop his execution. Foster came within hours of being killed by lethal injection, when, in an unprecedented manner, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to recommend that his death sentence be commuted. Governor Rick Perry complied. Today, Kenneth Foster is still behind bars serving a sentence disproportionate to his crime. But he is alive.

As I write this, activists are trying to do the same for a prisoner named Jeff Wood. Wood and Foster were both sentenced to die under Texas's "law of parties," which allows a jury to convict a defendant who was not the primary actor in a crime. The law states that "if, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it." This is how Kenneth Foster, the "getaway driver" in a series of robberies, ended up on death row for a murder committed by someone else, 80 feet away -- a man who himself was later executed. And this is why Jeff Wood faces execution today.

You can go here to read the specifics of the Wood case. Go here for more information on what you can do. But please consider contacting the state of Texas to urge them not to take the life of a man who did not murder anyone.

Call the Governor: (512) 463-2000

Call the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles: (512) 406-5240

Broad New Domestic Spying Measures Are Coming to a Neighborhood Near You
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on August 18, 2008 at 10:00 AM.

Arriving at a bar in Manhattan on Friday night, I presented my passport to the man at the door. (I lost my driver's license some time ago, so this has become my ID until I can get myself to the DMV.) The bouncer -- a large, humorless man in all black -- examined it, and then, on a piece of lined paper, slowly started writing down my name, date of birth, and nationality.

"Excuse me," I asked. "Is there a reason you are taking down my information?"

"NYPD," he answered, without looking up.

"Can I refuse to have this information recorded?" I asked, not really asking a question.

"Yes," he said, still not looking up. "But I can refuse to let you in."

I squabbled a bit with the bouncer as a line formed behind me. He told me that the bar had had some trouble with underage drinking. "So this isn't some sort of homeland security thing," I asked, feeling more than a little paranoid. He said it was, actually (though I got the sense he didn't know exactly what I was talking about), but assured me that the list of names would not be shared with the authorities. Then he added, "this is to keep you safe."

***

On Saturday morning, I had an article from my boss in my inbox. From the Washington Post:

U.S. May Ease Police Spy Rules

More Federal Intelligence Changes Planned

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Should Americans Really Consider Afghanistan the "Right" War?
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on July 31, 2008 at 11:00 AM.

Watch "Meet the Bloggers" on Friday at 1pm EST to join the discussion on U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

In the spring of 2004, Time Magazine ran a cover story posing the question: "Remember Afghanistan?" One year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the message was clear: the war in Afghanistan, started in retaliation for 9/11 and continuing years later, was "The Forgotten War."

That was March 8, 2004. A few weeks later, in Fallujah, a group of Blackwater mercenaries were ambushed and slaughtered, their burning bodies hung from a bridge on the Euphrates River. It was, as Jeremy Scahill would describe it, "the day the war turned;" the U.S. military laid waste to the Iraqi city, the resistance to the war caught fire, and the rest, well, one can only wish the rest was history. Regardless, Iraq at the time was front page news.

Four years later, the war has fallen off the media's radar. Network coverage, consistently on the decline, has been "massively scaled back this year" alone. With recent news coverage of the occupation abysmal, perhaps it should surprise no one that Afghanistan, traditionally the more neglected of the two, should be even more marginalized. But now that's beginning to change. The U.S. presidential race -- not to mention thriving opium production and a recent succession of bloody attacks -- have shifted people's attention back to Afghanistan. The picture isn't pretty -- and it's getting worse. A Pentagon study released last month predicts a rise in already steep levels of violence in Afghanistan, reporting that the Taliban "regrouped after its fall from power and have coalesced into a resilient insurgency." "It now poses a challenge to the Afghan government's authority in some rural areas. … The Taliban is likely to maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks and bombings in 2008."

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Air Force Brass Get Luxury In-Flight Seats on Taxpayer's Dime
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on July 24, 2008 at 3:00 PM.

This piece originally appeared in PEEK.

I know it's been a long war, with a lot of egregious waste and all, but perhaps you recall the one about KBR's embroidered towels, that sordid episode in which a KBR contractor was told by a higher up that, when ordering towels for U.S. soldiers in Iraq, he should be sure to get them with the company logo stitched on them, so that the troops would be sure to know which corporation provided them with terrycloth goodness in a war zone. Never mind that the bit of embroidery tripled or quadrupled the cost of the towels. "This is a cost-plus contract," the supervisor said. "Taxpayers pay for that."

Like KBR's empty trucks, the towels became a symbol of contractor fraud and the profit-driven abuse of the American people that, aside from the war itself, has become one of the major scandals of the Iraq invasion -- a "profound waste of taxpayers' money," in the words of Sen. Byron Dorgan.

Of course, those are war profiteers. They're in the business of being shameless and crass. But what happens when the waste is not about profit padding by mercenaries but, rather, about padding the derrieres of military commanders?

Well, this.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that top Air Force brass "sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on 'comfort capsules' to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents."

"Production of the first capsule -- consisting of two sealed rooms that can fit into the fuselage of a large military aircraft -- has already begun."

So, what exactly is a "comfort capsule"? A glance at the design (helpfully posted alongside the article) reveals them to be pretty much what they sound like; sort of ultra-cozy VIP cubicles; what the average office workspace might look like, only airborne, with leather seats and flat screen TVs.

Also, "an Air Force document specified that the capsule's seats are to swivel such that 'the longitudinal axis of the seat is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, regardless of where the capsules are facing." For there will be no air-borne nausea aboard military flights -- this is war, dammit! Air Force leaders must be able to "talk, work and rest comfortably in the air," according to Brigadier General Robert H. McMahon, one of the military men responsible for carrying out the comfort capsule project. From their inception, McMahon made it clear that the "comfort capsules" should be considered "world class" accommodations.

Explaining his instructions to subordinates, McMahon said he used the term "world class" "in just about everything I discuss. … That represents an attitude." He said he wanted to "create an environment that whoever was riding in that would be proud of," the government would be proud of and "the people of the United States" would be proud of.

Because if the American people can't be proud of the Iraq occupation, by god they will admire the seats of empire.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »